Positionalty has been a complex term to understand by many people, many people argue basing on their own perceptions in life. What matters most how do people view you as a person, how do they describe, for instance, as students, we interact with one another. More often, we all see life in a different way depending on our background and experiences. We position people depending on so many things this may include gender, race, and culture as well as the socio-economic class. We all have different positionalities and our own bias based on epistemology. Thank God, to education as it tries to shape and change these perceptions, we learn to listen to other people, appreciate them, as well as respecting them. Personality of an individual is because of by experiences, and our own identity. This way we can now know how our own positionality can be influenced by epistemology.
Everybody is always described by his own personality and position in the world, as well as the epistemology. This can be as a result of the past, and present experiences, and even to an extent of the future basing on who an individual wants to be in the future. The family, the peer group around that individual, and the society, also influences one’s personality. According to (Tatum, 1997, p.18), Identity is "shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts." Identity is defined by the behavior and characteristics of a person, family changes, the past and the social-political aspects. My identity in this case depends on how people around me perceive me; the people around me in this context consist of the parent, peers, my teachers, neighbors, and even my colleagues at work. The cultural image around me reflects who I am as well; this acts as a mirror of me. The racial identity perception also describes who I am.
I am a female who has grown up from an average social background, I am a Muslim so basically am described by that as my identity, I am black, and definitely that shows that I am from the black racial background. According to the psychologist Erick Erikson, one’s identity is shaped by the social, cultural and historical context. Basing on the past, my identity had changed with time based on the past experiences, whom I was when I was still young is different from whom I am now. Therefore, my identity will be based on these factors like: who I was, who I am now, and whom I intend to be in the near future.Who I was
I was and am still a Black Muslim from Africa, I was born in South Sudan, and my parents managed to come in this country as refugees. Back then, there were a lot of violence in my country, and we managed to escape that through a certain refugee organization under United Nations. In the past, in my family, the women were not given the education as they believe their position is to be in the kitchen and give birth to children. Since we came to this country, I realized that education is very important to all. My parents had no choice but to take us to school in order to fit in the society. In the school, there are a lot of prejudice and racial discrimination, both in class and outside the class. The life I experienced has made me learn to appreciate other people’s culture and race. Initially, I used to have a low self-esteem as everybody around me was just a racist; they only made the world around me to be full of discrimination. Everything I did I was not sure if I was right or wrong, I did not know what character I was supposed to display so as I also look important in the society.Who I am
Currently, my position is still complex to define; in this case, I am educated, though am still affected by the racial discrimination around me, I face the same in school, in class, as well as at home. The people around me are people of a higher social class that has many aspects of racism. They do not look at people from a different race with the same view as their own. I find this quite challenging as they lower my self-esteem. They make feel uncomfortable, the way they talk, and the way they feel. The people they associate with mock other people who are non-white. All the same am a unique character who is able to neutralize all this, firstly, I challenge them in most aspects as life has taught me the hardest way, I handle anything that comes my way with courage and strive hard to overcome. Currently I am studying as a teacher and my profession will help me to look for ways possible to reduce racism. The challenges I have encountered as black has made me work hard in life to make people know that color does not matter, neither does the status, what matters is whom you are and what you want to be as well as what have you done to be whom you want to be.b. According to Beverly, the term identity is very complicated basing on the facts of subordination and domination. The domination or subordination also shaped my identity, as it is obvious, the dominant group has the power and authority over the subordinate. I was just a subordinate group, and that has taught me a lot, in our community we have grown with the Aspect that the non-Whites do not get jobs. My parents are Muslims, learned but they never get the job. There is a lot of prejudice and discrimination all round. Generally, we are seen as not intelligent enough to handle a critical issue, my parents have worked as subordinate group. The dominant groups including teachers do not consider the minority, they base on color when they are teaching, the job opportunities are limited and very few people can be employed. The social identity has also been a greatc.
There is a relationship between positionality and epistemology in shaping my identity; firstly, epistemology studies the approach, nature, and origin as well as the ethics of a given group of people. Generally my personality had also been shaped by this aspect whereby my originality has been influenced by the white community and currently, I do not see things the way I used to see them when I was still in my home country, as in our home country, most people are not educated, and they are more in tradition than civilization. I cannot perceive and belief in the traditional aspects as I used to, right now, I am also civilized, I have been transformed into the American perspective and culture since the environment changes one’s personality. I do not see things like those that I used to see. Back to the definition of positionality, which is termed as the practice or the position that somebody can view himself into basing on the study, this is because of the information that has been gathered in terms of gender, race, class, gender. I argue against this point because, for me I know, a character cannot be defined by just positionality. I am also shaped by the values, the attitude, as well as the assumptions from the surrounding world what people believe in can change someone’s position for instance in our community back in African, it is believed that a woman cannot take the top position, cannot be educated. In this case, the culture I am in had a different perception, even the top positions are taken by women. I cannot term this aspect to be very true, but to some extend I can say that the values from the environment around me have also influenced whom I am and whom I want to be. I cannot assume that blacks are not people, or they are not intelligent, as others have seen this though through the experiences, I have faced, I can see and appreciate everybody despite the color, gender, social class, and socio-economic background. To me I believe, that in life, we are all equal and everybody can make it. For instance, what a white can do even a black can do even better than that.
I have grown up in Australia, and my background has not been well of until sometimes recently, in this region, actually money is everything and anybody who does not have money is looked down upon, I have the experience that indeed to be poor is very bad. In the neighborhood, I have even met the highly educated people who abuse their people since they are poor and they do not speak English. There was a lot of discrimination among theses people as they do not have money all they do is to work as servants to the whites. The government does not care about such minority, and the law is also biased, in they house we were living for instance, the housing conditions are not good as there is no water, the houses are made of wood and papers.
There are no enough health services, when we could not even have enough money to access the others they were very expensive making life very unbearable.Back to the classroom, no one can take my opinions, they are always rejected since am a woman in addition to my color, in this way, and I have learned my classmates’ perception of life. I have learned that even the poor parents struggle hard to make their children better human beings in the society. I know one thing in life that hardship only but transform us into a better being. I have funded out in life that working hard avoid the chances of pessimism and apathy. In my profession, I would wish to come up with the model that the learners can explore different talents and unique characters for others to know their capability and change their perception. I understand the fact that through the life experiences, one’s personality is shaped by our own perspective and values. We should learn to listen to others, appreciate them, this way we can limit our own assumptions, and reduce the challenges. I always believe in one thing that everybody is equal and should be treated with respect, cherished like others.
Works Cited
Grasswick, Heidi E. Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science: Power in Knowledge. Dordrecht [etc.: Springer, 2011. Print.
García, Martínez F, and Mladen Popović. Defining Identities: We, You, and the Other in the Dead Sea Scrolls : Proceedings of the Fifth Meeting of the Ioqs in Gröningen. Leiden: Brill, 2008. Print.
Troper, Harold M. The Defining Decade: Identity, Politics, and the Canadian Jewish Community in the 1960s. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Print.
